Research Fellows
Dr Weerachai Jaratlerdsiri
A senior Computational Biologist, Weerachai is passionate about interrogating “Big Data” genomics through the application of advanced computational techniques and machine learning to uncover the role of genetic and environmental factors on human evolution and adaptation to disease, with a focus on prostate cancer and associated tumour evolution.
Dr Kaitao Lai
A Bioinformatician and Software Engineer, Kaitao brings his expertise in data analytics, applying his skills to metagenomic analytics, while creating web-based tools for data capture and clinical applications.
Postdoctoral Researchers
Dr Pamela Soh
Having completed her PhD in Dog population disease genetics (2021), Pam has turned her attention to humans and prostate cancer, applying her skills as a Population Genomicist to identifying inherited and somatic genetic variants associated with prostate cancer risk and adverse outcomes.
Dr Kazzem Gheybi (Qeybi)
As a trained medical practitioner, Kazzem completed his PhD in Cancer Epidemiology (2022). Kazzem’s research is focusing on different epidemiological risk factors of prostate cancer, specifically related to health disparities, while learning new skills in cancer genetics.
Dr Md. Mehedi Hasan
Having completed his PhD in prawn genetics (2022), Mehedi joined the team to head research focused on Cancer Genome Complexity using state-of-the-art technologies such as Optical Genome Mapping (OGM) and long-read sequencing. Mehedi is uncovering clinically actionable large structural variations acquired during tumour development.
Project Manager
Sarah Battle (MSc)
Sarah, with both laboratory and management expertise, including the National Health and Laboratory Services (NHLS) in UK, is Managing the major projects and Consortia headed by the lab. These include the US DoD-funded HEROIC PCaPH Africa1K Consortium and TARGET Africa Project, as well as facilitating and supporting the lab members and both the SAPCS and EAPCS resource management.
PhD Students
Jue Jiang
Jue has extensive expertise in high performance compute (HPC) and big data genomic analytics and heads the Data Management in the lab. She recently registered for a PhD, where she will apply her vast knowledge and computational skills to interrogate tumour genomic complexities associated with prostate cacner health disparities.
Title: Revealing genomic processes associated with aggressive prostate cancer using big data analytics
Supervisors: Professor Vanessa M. Hayes, Dr Weerachai Jaratlerdsiri
PhD Visiting Students
Jenna Craddock
PhD student (2022)
University of Pretoria, South Africa
Title: Epigenomic drivers of aggressive prostate cancer in men of African ancestry.
Local supervisors: Dr Sean Patrick, Professor Riana Bornman
International supervisors: Professor Vanessa Hayes (University Sydney), Dr Pavlo Lutsik (KU Leuven)
PhD Students (international)
Mpho Mokoatie
PhD student (2020)
University of Pretoria, South Africa
Title: Machine Learning applications to prostate cancer genomic analysis
Local supervisors: Professor Vukosi Marivate, Dr Darlington Mapiye
Additional support: Professor Vanessa Hayes, Professor Riana Bornman
Maphuti Tebogo Lebelo
PhD student (2020)
University of Pretoria, South Africa
Title: Hormone biology and genetics and its association with aggressive prostate cancer in men of African ancestry.
Local supervisors: Professor Riana Bornman
International supervisors: Professor Vanessa Hayes, Dr Weerachai Jaratlerdsiri
MSc Student (international)
Umuna Maendo
MSc student (2023)
Botswana International University for Science and Technology, Botswana
Title: Genes of fatty acid metabolism and prostate cancer health disparities
Local supervisors: Professor Nerve Zhou, Professor Kebaneilwe Lebani
International supervisors: Professor Vanessa Hayes, Dr Weerachai Jaratlerdsiri
Honours Students
Ruotian Huang
Course: Honours University of Sydney SOMS, 2022 Semester 2
Project: Role of telomere length in driving prostate cancer genomic instability and disease disparity.
Supervisors: Professor Vanessa Hayes, Dr Weerachai Jaratlerdsiri
Alice Adams
Course: Bath University UK Science Student Program, University of Sydney SOMS, 2022 Semester 2
Project: Role of the Y chromosome in ethnic disparities associated with aggressive prostate cancer.
Supervisors: Professor Vanessa Hayes, Dr Weerachai Jaratlerdsiri, Dr Pamela Soh
Sharaf Alexei Fozdar
Course: Honours University of Sydney, School of Life & Environmental Sciences, 2023 Semester 1
Project: Refining the root region of the human mitochondrial evolutionary tree.
Supervisors: Professor Simon Ho, Professor Vanessa Hayes, Dr Pamela Soh
Kangping Zhou
Course: Honours University of Sydney SOMS, 2023 Semester 2
Project: Determine if heritable mutations in genes upregulated in response to hypoxia contribute to significant ethnic disparities in lethal prostate cancer.
Supervisors: Professor Vanessa Hayes, Dr Kazzem Gheybi, Dr Pamela Soh
Honours Projects 2024
Course: Honours University of Sydney SOMS, 2024 Semester or 2
Project 1: Interrogating the prostate tumour structome – making clinical sense of large-scale tumour genome complexity.
Supervisors: Professor Vanessa hayes, Dr Mehedi Hasan, Dr Weerachai Jaratlersiri
Project 2: The role of the mitogenome in prostate cancer.
Supervisors: Professor Vanessa Hayes, Dr Pamela Soh
Applications: University of Sydney, SOMS Honours course portal